Anti-nuclear movement: “A certain satisfaction” | tagesschau.de

You have fought for decades to end nuclear energy. Now the anti-nuclear movement has achieved its goal. But is she happy with that?

A helicopter circles over the farm of Christine Scheer and her husband Heinrich Voß. The 70-year-old sits in the sun in her garden and winces. The sound of the propeller reminds her of February 28, 1981. Minus ten degrees, an icy east wind is sweeping across northern Germany. Nevertheless, 100,000 people came to Brokdorf – for the largest anti-nuclear demonstration in Germany to date.

Demonstrations have been taking place there since the construction phase of the Brokdorf nuclear power plant began in the 1970s. The couple’s property borders on the site of the nuclear power plant. “That day remained a traumatic experience for me,” says Scheer. “The People just walked past the barriers and across the frozen land to here. By the thousands.” Then a mood built up on both sides and “at the end, when most of the demonstration had already broken up, the police forces flew in with helicopters and tilted the rotor blades, and then people flew through the air “, so Scheer.

Fear of accident and radiation

She met her husband Heinrich, a farmer, during the first protests. The demos and the organization around them shape many decades of their lives. The fear of a possible accident, the concern about the radiation motivates their resistance – and last but not least the German past.

Karsten Hinrichsen lives not far from Scheer and Voß, many call him the “rebel from Brokdorf”. The now 80-year-old has an unrestricted view of the nuclear power plant from his little house on the dyke. For years, the meteorologist complained – and lost. He remembers that the resistance in Brokdorf, the 1000-strong community, was manageable.

“Never a homogeneous movement”

A large part of the population supported the construction of the power plant – because of the many jobs, for example. “It wasn’t easy here on site, because of course everyone saw the business tax receipts. If you drive through the village, you can see how wealthy it is here. Everything is the newest, the biggest, the swimming pool is nice and warm. So if you don’t have friends, Like-minded people, then it was made difficult for you,” said Hinrichsen.

But then more and more like-minded people, especially from Hamburg, came to the Lower Elbe. This anti-nuclear struggle across all social classes makes the movement in Germany unique in the world, says historian Frank Uekötter. “The anti-nuclear movement in Germany was never a homogenous movement and that was, in a way, the secret of its success.”

Many different people had come together, some people with a quite radical agenda, also as a product of the 1968 movement. Students were important for this movement, but also ordinary citizens, farmers. “And this mix has actually always made it difficult to split the movement or to fight it,” said historian Uekötter.

Whyl: Winemakers and students for the same cause

How diverse the anti-nuclear movement in Germany is can be seen in its nucleus. 800 kilometers south of Brokdorf, in Whyl in Baden-Württemberg. Here vintners and students from the University of Freiburg fought for the same cause: in 1975 they occupied the building site for the planned nuclear power plant. The police cleared the area with water cannons and dog units. But the resistance remained – and was ultimately successful: almost 20 years later, the nuclear power plant project was discontinued.

The fact that citizens want to have a say when it comes to major projects was new for the country, says historian Uekötter. Citizens’ initiatives and citizen participation have been unusual up to now. “The fact that infrastructure projects first have to be discussed openly is a democratic matter of course today, but we owe that not least to the nuclear debate.”

Many problems remain unsolved

The Brokdorf nuclear power plant was shut down in 2021, and now the three remaining reactors on German soil are also going off the grid. But when Scheer and her husband look at their unloved neighbor from their garden, they still don’t have a carefree feeling. “We still feel bad when we look at the nuclear power plant. Of course it’s a little better now that it’s no longer in operation, but the problems haven’t been solved. There’s no repository, everything stays there,” says Scheer .

And even the “rebel from Brokdorf” has grown a bit tired of decades of fighting against nuclear power. “A certain joy and satisfaction is already there, but victory? Basically, it’s 45 years of loss. If we had started with renewable energies back then, how would we be there today? Great!”

45 years ago, however, renewables were not yet an issue – at that time, politicians were largely in agreement that nuclear power was the technology and energy source of the future.